On May 19th, Twitter granted Google access to its data stream, a move that allows Google to index tweets without having to crawl Twitter’s website. This change is important to marketers because it increases the reach of tweets beyond the boundaries of the social networking platform. The direct result of this shift is that users will now see more tweets in Google search results.

It is encouraging to see that Twitter is committed to making it easier and quicker for Google to index tweets; a similar agreement between the two parties lasted from 2009 to 2011.

To identify the impact of this renewed partnership on search engine results, Stone Temple Consulting compared data from February (before the change) to data from June (after the change). More specifically, the company looked at the number of tweets that were indexed within 7 days of being posted. Here are the key findings from the study:

• There was a 466% increase in the number of indexed tweets in June in comparison to the number that had been indexed in February before the new arrangement took effect.
• Despite the spike, only 3.4% of tweets were being indexed within 7 days of publication.
• Google seems to favour some tweets more than others, such as those from users who have a large number of followers or users who have higher social authority.

This means brands that are active on Twitter gain visibility as their content is now more likely to be seen by non-Twitter users. In fact, there are five things marketers can do to take advantage of this increase in tweet indexation:

• Allocate more time to your Twitter activity
• Develop shareable content
• Identify users with high social authority and form connections with them
• Track your performance in the above areas by noting on a regular basis how many of your tweets have been indexed

If you have any questions about improving your company’s SEO performance, please contact us to book a complimentary meeting with one of our consultants.